🚀 go-pugleaf

# > Pre and post increment/decrement operators (++, --);
# INC, DEC are a hack in M2 to satisfy people who think they can out-code
# a compiler. (With most M2 compilers, this is understandable...).

It's a question of appearance.  I can say

	while (*p++ = *q++)
		;

But then, does M2 have arithmetic for pointers?  Also, INC and DEC are not
functions which return the new value -- why not?

# > The ? : operator, eg, x = (y < 2 ? 10 : 20) + y;  is the same as
# >       if (y<2) x = 10 + y; else x = 20 + y;
# Pardon me, but did you ever program in APL?

Another question of appearance.  I like:

	printf("%d block%s\n", i, (i=1)?"":"s");

# > Large assortment of assignment operators (+=, -=, *=, /=, &=, |=, etc)
# >       eg, x *= 2; is equivalent to x = x * 2;
# M2 doesn't go into that sort of thing.  Seems like even the most
# rudimentary expression optimizer could take care of this problem
# lickety-split.

Yes, it's true, a good compiler will find the best way no matter how you
say it.  But again, appearance gets my vote:

	foo[i]->bar.size += newsize;
vs.
	foo[i]^.bar.count = foo[i]^.bar.count + newsize;
	
I get to say what I mean.  Yes, I know about INCR, but this is only one case.

# You can't really compare M2 and C.  They are two different beasts.

I agree.  M2 ends up being more elegant, or at least I end up being more
elegant when I use it.  :-).  C lets you do some things more clearly, but
the code ends up being a lot more dense per square inch of EMACS windows,
and C has things that I sometimes can't help taking advantage of, in spite
of the pain I experience later trying to understand what I did.

Both languages have their place.

# PS. Riddle of the day.  How do you do the following in C?
#     TYPE
#         RealPtr = POINTER TO REAL;
#         X = PROCEDURE (
#             CARDINAL
#             ) : RealPtr;
#         A = ARRAY [ 0 .. 5 ] OF X;
#     VAR
#         x : POINTER TO A;
# 
# Ok, skip the CARDINAL parameter, but I'd like to see the rest.

Sigh.  You're going to love this.  Let's skip the CARDINAL parameter, as you
suggest, since non-ANSI C doesn't let you specify parameters when you declare
a function.

typedef		real		*RealPtr;
typedef		RealPtr		(X)();
typedef		X		A[6];

/*var*/		A		*x;

M2 is _much_ clearer.  Anybody got an example of something like this that
C does more clearly?  Something useful would be nice...

Calling one of A's functions is fun:

	(*((*A)[i]))(param1, param2);

(I may have too many parens.  I always puzzle over this part of C.)
-- 
Paul Vixie
Digital Equipment Corporation	Work:  vixie@dec.com	Play:  paul@vixie.UUCP
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Palo Alto, California, USA	  +1 415 853 6600	   +1 415 864 7013